M. C. Etter Painting, Inc.

This project has had many challenges and hurdles All contractors that have worked for MrS*** have not been able to satisfy him We continue to work with him and will do all we can to solve any issue that is related to our work

Complaint: 12098030
I am rejecting this response for the reasons detailed below.Mr. E[redacted]’s response is regrettably inaccurate and does nothing to resolve the ma[redacted] at hand. Absolutely none of the issues I have raised are unrelated or outside his scope of work, and he most certainly has not been in “constent communication” [sic] with me. And although I gave him a list ten days ago of dates I would be available for him to finish his work, he has yet to schedule something with me. Once again, I feel compelled to address the comments he has made.I can only conclude from Mr. E[redacted]'s response that he wants me to provide more detail.I once had a door installation with which I was completely satisfied. It was properly installed and well finished inside and out, without any wood grain that was unusually pronounced or objectionable. It was this door and frame that Mr. E[redacted] ruined. What E[redacted] has failed to grasp throughout this ordeal is that the quality, including surface appearance, of that original door is what he is responsible for restoring. While allowing that grain pa[redacted]ns certainly vary in any wood product, the raised grain on one of the stiles of the door E[redacted] purchased for me was far more pronounced and different than anything I had ever seen on any wood door. It doesn’t even come close to matching the adjacent wood on this particular door, to the point where even one of E[redacted]’s own employees said it was the “gnarliest” grain he had ever encountered. Both the door manufacturer and their California distributor have told me that it would be fairly routine for a good painter to sand down such raised grain, and this procedure is part of many painting specifications for wood doors and trim (woodwork). Of course, E[redacted] never inspected the door he had purchased before it was installed, nor did he supervise the subcontractor he had hired to perform the work.We actually had been making progress toward mitigating the objectionable grain. Unfortunately, the last time E[redacted] had attempted to paint it, in October 2016, he used paint from a can he had left outside in the sun in 95° weather—another mistake. The texture of the paint itself was severely compromised to the point where E[redacted] could not continue to use it. Now he has this paint texture to contend with, along with the grain. Although he did come back several weeks later and do some more sanding, the job remains unfinished, along with the interior casing and some adjacent, unstained exterior siding that was left exposed when the new door trim landed in a slight different place from where the original trim had been. He has still missed some spots on touch-up as well.As for the “holidays” on my chimney, it was E[redacted] himself who had pointed one of them out to me in July 2014—I subsequently found two more that weren’t visible from the street. These remain uncorrected; no decisions involved here.Repairing the damaged interior wood grilles on the picture window and patio doors is a similar issue. These were in superb condition before E[redacted]’s crew started working on them, but they were somehow gouged or otherwise compromised during the masking/unmasking process. While I have had to accept that the many places where they have had to get filled and repainted will never be good as new, I most certainly feel justified in requiring E[redacted] to find and correct every place where his crew created a problem. Being able to mask and unmask glass without damaging the adjacent wood is something any professional painter should have been able to accomplish.Does Mr. E[redacted] want me to also mention the 30-month saga of the metal tracks for the sliding screen doors that go with my patio doors? I can do this in great detail, if he wishes. Those screens are still leaning against my bedroom walls, when they should have been installed on the patio doors years ago.The screen door tracks should have been easy, a no-brainer that really had nothing to do with the other damages we were trying to resolve. Surely, we could at least get that done! In early June 2015, as I was leaving for vacation, I handed the two tracks to E[redacted] and asked them to paint them while I was away, figuring they would be ready to install upon my return in July. (He was going to spray them in his workshop.) Not so.After repeated requests over the next nine months, E[redacted] told me in spring 2016 that he had already given them back to me, which of course was not the case. It wasn’t until October 2016, that he finally brought them to my house. To my astonishment, he did not think to wrap the newly-painted tracks individually to protect them during transport; consequently, they were full of chips and scratches before they even entered my home—yet another mistake. As if that weren’t enough, E[redacted] even used the wrong shade of blue when doing some of touch-up on these tracks—mistakes upon mistakes! With the weather now heating up, the tracks are still sitting in my dining room, as I contemplate the prospect of yet another season without the screens I been unable to use.And, of course, there is the unfinished garage door…Perhaps Mr. E[redacted] would even like me to talk about the time, in September 2014, when he sprayed blue paint all over my upstairs hallway, paint that was supposed to go on the outside of my house! It took eleven months for him to have that corrected—maybe he thought I was trying to make up my mind whether to just paint the rest of my walls blue, since I am obviously so indecisive! He only got to that after he learned through my neighbor, in August 2015, that I was about to file complaints against him then.After several further admonishments went unheeded, it was only with reluctance and regret that I finally filed this formal complaint with the Be[redacted] Business Bureau. I did so after giving Mr. E[redacted] ample time to set things right; no one can suggest that I have in any way acted in haste. My patience is exhausted.I cannot imagine what homeowner would ever be satisfied with performance like this! I hope Mr. E[redacted] will abandon his self-serving assertions and simply get on with addressing all outstanding issues before June 1. If he doesn’t, then there are other avenues where I can direct my complaints.
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: 12098030
I am rejecting only a portion...

of this response for the reasons outlined below.Reading Mr. [redacted]’s response to the B[redacted] Business Bureau regarding the complaint I had lodged against him, I welcome his apparent willingness to address all outstanding issues with his work. He has emailed to me directly and quickly about scheduling time to do this, after being AWOL on my job for nearly five months. And though he did not reference the B[redacted] Business Bureau at all in his private note to me, it was clearly my formal complaint that finally prodded him to act.If Mr. [redacted] had simply said he’d get everything done now and left it at that, then I would have accepted his response completely and without question. Instead, he has used this opportunity to make vague references to “hurdles and challenges,” before going on to insinuate that the real problem is that no contractor has ever been able to satisfy me. It is this bizarre and self-serving assertion that compels me to reject THAT PORTION of his response.Mr. [redacted] cannot possibly know what contractors I’ve dealt with in my forty-five years of adult life, which include nearly a quarter century working in the architectural profession on the East Coast. One would think that the man who caused thousands of dollars in damage to my home would have simply acknowledged responsibility for a job gone bad, shown regret and contrition, and indicated that he is now committed to setting things right.Any customer or homeowner would regard an experience like the one I’ve had with this contractor as horrific. In addition to completely ruining a new in-swing patio door and frame to the point where even the frame had to be removed and replaced, Mr. [redacted] also damaged two new sliding French doors and a new picture window. He could not even manage to keep track of various pieces and parts he had removed from the aforementioned sliding French doors, and he could not figure out how to reassemble everything when he attempted to reinstall them.As if that were not bad enough, Mr. [redacted] declined to file a claim with his insurance company, saying he would cover everything himself. Although he did write some painfully large checks to pay for replacing the door he ruined and repairing and reassembling the other damaged units, I was the one who had to spend roughly 34 hours of my valuable time doing nearly all the legwork to deal with this situation. Through it all, [redacted] has shown little regard or concern for my seemingly endless inconvenience.Finally, there is the other unfinished work that had absolutely nothing to do with the door and window damages: leaving my garage door roughly 80 percent painted for nearly three years, for example, and failing to correct other punch list items.Mr. [redacted]’s “hurdles and challenges” were all of his own making; painting is not rocket science, provided one knows when to slow down and exercise maximum care. Once he made major mistakes that cost him any profit he might otherwise have made on the job, [redacted] showed little interest in following through, let alone with the level of quality any customer would rightly expect from a professional painter.So far, I’ve only mentioned the major problems on this job—the executive summary, so to speak. If Mr. [redacted] really wants to press the argument that I simply can never be pleased, then I would be happy to put on the official record a much more detailed recitation of my experience with him, point by point. I sincerely hope that won’t be necessary.With all this having been said, I nevertheless hope Mr. [redacted] will now follow through with diligence and finish well, so we can all have closure and move on with our lives. If he does so, then I would be more than willing to regard this matter as closed.
Regards,
[redacted] S[redacted]

We are in constent communication with the owner.  This job had many contractors involved.  All that where unable to satisfy B[redacted]e.  B[redacted]e is unable to make decsions quickly causeing long delays.  He also is asking us to fix things that are not connected to our scope or things that can not be fixed ie. he does not like the grain pattern in the door.  We have replaced the damaged door plus repainted any areas connected to that.  All other issues B[redacted]e is bringing up are unrelated and only out of my good will am working with him to fix them.  This is not the type of situation that can be exsplained in this forum.